Service and trade persons frequently require the use of load bearing vehicles such as "pick-up" trucks in their daily activities. Vehicles of this type provide substantial storage area needed to carry cargo, materials, supplies and large tools. These same service and trade persons are also known to require the use of hand tools which, for safety and convenience purposes, are generally stored in locked containers such as tool boxes or similar containers. As those skilled in the art will recognize, such hand tools are generally valuable. They must therefore be protected from theft when left unattended.
There are numerous commercially available tool boxes which are designed for storage in proximity to a truck bed. These commercially available tool boxes often lie transverse to the length of the bed and include a pair of lockable covers or "lids" which raise from either side of the tool box. In operation, it is necessary to reach over the top of the box to obtain the desired tools that are stored within the box. It is often very difficult to locate particular tools as these transverse tool boxes are generally simple rectangular boxes with no drawer or segmented sections.
Other commercially available tool boxes are disposed parallel to the length of the truck bed. These tool box designs utilize some of the wasted space lying before and after the wheel wells disposed in the truck bed. These tool boxes include lockable lids which open up away from the tool box requiring stooping or reaching over the side wall of the truck bed to reach into the tool box. Again, it becomes difficult to locate particular tools as these tool boxes are also simply large containers with no segmented sections.
Against this background, it is thus desirable to provide a tool box which utilizes the available space behind the wheel wells in a truck bed but still permits the user or service person full access to the tool box area without unnecessary or uncomfortable reaching.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,961 issued to Brown discloses a tool box mount for a pick-up truck. The tool box mount comprises a frame for supporting the tool box and a support means connected to the frame for attaching the frame to the bed of the pick-up truck. The support means permits the frame to swing over the bed from a first position to a second position.
The Brown patent does not solve the problems associated with secure attachment of a tool box to the bed of a pick-up truck to prevent the tool box from being stolen while unattended. The Brown patent discloses the use of a conventional chain and padlock locking mechanism to secure the toolbox to the frame. This prevents the possibility of an unauthorized person removing the tool box from the truck. This locking mechanism is inefficient and incapable of assuring a high degree of security of the tool box when left unattended.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,088,636 to Barajas and 5,037,153 to Stark disclose movable tool boxes which are disposed in a transverse manner with relation to the truck bed. These tool boxes do not sufficiently utilize the available space behind the wheel wells of the truck bed. In addition, these transverse tool boxes prevent transportation and storage of cargo immediately behind the wheel wells, in front of the truck tail gate, in the center portion of the truck bed.